


drowning never had a purpose (but it led me to you)

by Take_Me_To_My_Fragile_Dreams



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Dreams and Nightmares, Implied/Referenced Torture, M/M, Past Torture, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-25
Updated: 2017-08-25
Packaged: 2018-12-19 14:56:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11900100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Take_Me_To_My_Fragile_Dreams/pseuds/Take_Me_To_My_Fragile_Dreams
Summary: There are nights when the water comes for him. Of course, it is never actually water--but this is what he tells Lance when he is awoken, shaking and with the air like thorns in his throat.





	drowning never had a purpose (but it led me to you)

**Author's Note:**

> I was rewatching episode 5 and I barely got past the first few minutes before my fingers were itching to write so here we are

There are nights when the water comes for him. Of course, it is never actually water--but this is what he tells Lance when he is awoken, shaking and with the air like thorns in his throat.

Kuro never remembers much of how he came to be, but what comes to him in the form of nightmares is enough. Still, he can never decide if the drowning is the worst. The ‘scientists’ that made him will argue that they were never trying to drown him. That the liquid that filled the tanks they kept him in during resting periods were meant to help; to nourish and grow and ease consciousness. The ghost feeling of liquid-filled lungs will always make Kuro think otherwise.  

Some days he is lucky, and it is only the original fluid that fills his prison. Others, he is not. Sometimes it is blood. Hot and rancid it chases its way down his throat, fills his lungs and chokes him with the knowledge that it is not just anyone’s blood.

These are the nights when he wakes up screaming, skin sweat soaked and eyes haunted.

These are the nights when Kuro clings to Lance, a litany of denial chanted into the paladin's neck. Lance will stay up with him despite his own eye bags. He will tell him that it is okay, that he is safe.

_(Sometimes Kuro wonders if that safety won’t come at a cost, one that he is not prepared to pay for it may mean the blue paladin’s suffering._

_Still, when all is said and done, these dreams make him all the more determined to protect Lance. Perhaps, Kuro finds himself thinking, they are useful in the end.)_

Other days he is staring back at the Champion, only this time he is the one free of the chamber. He watches as the fluid slips up past Shiro’s shoulders, sees it spill into his throat, flood his lungs; meets wide eyes until they close.

These are the nights he wakes up guilty and soundless, for it is always in these dreams that he is struck with the overpowering relief of having someone else take his place. Lance does not know of these dreams, for he never wakes when Kuro does. Still, he feels a need for repentance. He is standing beside Lance, beside Voltron. He is meant to be better, to _do_ better. So Kuro watches over the sleeping paladin on these nights, convincing himself that it is enough--that it has to be.

_(He never succeeds.)_

**Author's Note:**

> find me on tumblr @ [my101fragiledreams](http://my101fragiledreams.tumblr.com/) (and drop some prompts in my inbox if you're up for it)


End file.
